Isolated stromal cells for use in the treatment of diseases of the central nervous system

Patent Number: 6653134

This patent teaches that one can induce the differentiation of stromal stem cells into neural cells, through the culture of the stromal cells with differentiated neural cells. This patent is useful not only for generating cells for treatment of neurological conditions, but also may be used to begin elucidating what the specific signals are that the neural cells use to teach the stromal stem cells to differentiate along this lineages.

Philosophically speaking, if neurons can guide the differentiation of stem cells into other neurons, one would begin to wonder whether the actual thinking process can be used to modify the stem cells that are in the brain. For example, if stem cells are continually administered to a living brain in culture, could one have that brain live forever in the sense that the old neurons would pass on the memories to the new neurons that are being made in response to contact with the old neurons?

View this patent on the USPTO website.